How I Became a Programmer

This is a Nintendo Family Computer that we used to play Super Mario. What was interesting about this game console was that it is also a computer with a keyboard and a ROM cartridge with NS-HUBASIC programming language. It supports Text Modes and Graphic Modes on TV.

I only saw it being used as a computer. But thats when i got interested in programming. That was in 1985.

Some years later...


I wrote my first computer program on this personal computer in 1993 (or 1994). The simple computer was a CASIO FX-730P Personal Computer. With the RAM of only 8K bytes and a clock speed of about 400KHz, this simple computer can be interfaced with a printer or a cassete tape storage device.

The language was built into the firmware in the ROM, it was a version of BASIC.



will update this post soon.

Something you all should know!

As usual i was refreshing BBC NEWS Front page and came across this article. Once you read this, it comes to you that you see this kind of behavior among children nowadays.


Parents are being advised by experts not to give their children food containing certain additives until the results of a new study are published.

UK researchers tested the effects of a range of artificial colourings on children's behaviour. It is understood the results back previous research linking additives to hyperactivity and poor concentration. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it would not issue formal recommendations until the findings were published.

But independent experts said parents should avoid foodstuffs containing the additives.

A team at the University of Southampton tested the additives tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129) on both three-year olds and eight-to-nine year olds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6634071.stm

You better check for these additives on the ingredients label.
nopes.. better go for fresh foods.

The Russian Progress, Europian ATV and the American Crew Exploration Vehicle

The Progress is a Russian expendable freighter spacecraft. The spacecraft is an unmanned resupply spacecraft during its flight but upon docking with a space station it allows astronauts inside, hence it is classified manned by the manufacturer . It was derived from the Soyuz spacecraft, and is launched with the Soyuz launch vehicle. It is currently used to supply the International Space Station, but was originally used to supply Russian space stations for many years. There are three to four flights of the Progress spacecraft to the ISS per year. Each spacecraft remains docked until shortly before the new one arrives. Then it is filled with waste, disconnected, deorbited, and destroyed in the atmosphere.

It has carried fuel and other supplies to all the space stations since Salyut 6. The idea for the Progress came from the realisation that in order for long duration space missions to be possible, there would have to be constant source of supplies. It had been determined that a cosmonaut needed 30 kg of consumables a day; this equates to 5.4 tonnes over a six-month stay. It was impractical to launch this along with passengers in the small space available in the Soyuz.


This spacecraft is still in use today for the International Space Station. Between February 1, 2003 and July 26, 2005, it was the only spacecraft available to transport large quantities of supplies to the station, as the Space Shuttle fleet was grounded after the breakup of the Columbia at the end of STS-107. For ISS missions, the Progress M1 variant is used, which moves the water tanks from the propellant and refueling module to the pressurized section, and as a result is able to carry more propellant.

Like the Soyuz (and unlike most American spacecraft), the Progress has an autonomous navigation system that usually allows for automatic docking with the space station. It can be manually overridden if necessary.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is planning its own supply freighter called the Automated Transfer Vehicle. The first of these, the Jules Verne, is due for launch in mid 2007. It will be able to carry up to 7.5 tonnes of cargo into space, roughly three times as much as the Progress, and will be launched every 12 months by an Ariane 5 rocket.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle
The International Space Station (ISS) depends on regular deliveries of experimental equipment and spare parts as well as food, air and water for its permanent crew. From 2007 onward, Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will be one of the indispensable ISS supply spaceships.

Since the ATV is the heaviest and most complex spacecraft project ever developed in Europe, and because of its demanding requirements of human spacecraft safety, the launch campaign at the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana will extend almost four months before lift-off.

Meanwhile in Europe, from April to mid-summer, an extensive review will be conducted with NASA and the Russians to be sure that Jules Verne, its facilities and tri-lateral ATV procedures are ready to support Jules Verne ATV inaugural mission.

Qualification of the ATV Control Centre is almost finalized, a large part of the system validation test programme has been completed and the normal operations qualification programme has started and is on schedule for launch readiness by end-July this year.

The new Crew Exploration Vehicle, which will replace the Space Shuttle after 2010, will have, like Progress, two unmanned variations. One version will retain the pressurized crew module, but will be outfitted with storage lockers that can allow astronauts to bring fresh equipment onboard, along with being able to return experiments to Earth. Another version, with the crew module replaced with a docking ring on an enlarged service module, will allow the ISS to be boosted into a higher (350+ mi.) orbit, allowing the ISS to avoid most of the atmosphere and reducing the need to reboost the station on a regular basis.

RKK Energia has proposed as a replacement for the Progress spacecraft a new spacecraft by the name of Parom which means ferry in Russian. This new spacecraft would retrieve either the proposed Kliper or any other cargo container with a Russian airlock up to 15 tons back to the ISS.

The Soviet version of "Concorde". The TU-144

The Tupolev 144 a/c is a passenger airplan that can fly at the speed of sound. But this plane also didn't make it to the market as with the case of most Soviet developments. "Similarity of technical requirements and almost the same level of aircraft schools in UK, France and USSR have defined a striking likeness of “Concorde” and TU-144 a/c. However fortunes are different"
The above image shows Tu-144 (above) and Air France Concorde (below).

The Russian Space Shuttle, Buran

Those who have not heard of a Soviet or Russian space shuttle; yes they had a more advanced shuttle. It's very simillar to the American Shuttle in appearance and size. The Buran can fly unmanned flights that is not possible with American Shuttles. One other major difference is Buran doesn't have and engine like the American Shuttle.

Buran-Energia is the Russian Space Shuttle system made up of the space orbiter called Buran (Snowstorm/Blizzard) and its ultra powerful heavy lift booster system known as Energia (Energy).

Buran-Energia is Russia's answer to the American space shuttle program. Envisioned before the American shuttle, yet only built some years after Columbia blasted off into space, the Buran-Energia project was one of the largest, most ambitious and expensive space programs ever attempted in history.




Yet sadly, Buran-Energia had but one successful unmanned space flight before the whole project was suspended through lack of funds in 1993.

The Buran-Energia is composed of the the Buran shuttle, the Energia core booster and the Zenith strap on boosters, all designed to be fully reusable.

The Buran orbiter is a Russian adaptation of the American space shuttle design. While it resembles the American orbiter on the surface, it is in fact quite different underneath. Because of its very powerful boosters that launch it into space the Buran doesn't need any of its own engines, and hence, has a larger cargo bay.











A comparison between American Shuttle and Soviet Buran Shuttle (on the right).

The Energia central booster is one of the most powerful rockets ever made. Energia is a dedicated heavy lift system: Energia in fact is the only heavy lift rocket system in the world today. At its capacity, the Energia can lift a staggering estimated 120-175 tonnes of cargo into Low Earth Orbit! To put that into perspective, the nearest equivalent, the European Space Agency Ariane V rocket, can only manage 20!

The Energia is responsible for getting Buran into orbit, but being a dedicated heavy lift rocket, the Buran shuttle is just one of any number of cargos it can lift. The Energia was originally designed to lift the Russian Mir-2 Space Station into orbit. It was also designed to be the launch vehicle for planned Russian manned missions to Mars. With the financial problems prevalent in Russia over the last decade, however, these roles have not been able to be fulfilled, and the Energias lie unused.